Bogotá, Colombia – Colombia has gained its key proposal to ease the conflict on medicine on the world stage – however victory could possibly be brief lived because the nation dangers US “de-certification” in its present makes an attempt to manage cocaine.
The decision, backed by 63 international locations, was adopted final week on the United Nations 68th session of the Fee on Narcotic Medicine in Vienna, and broadly seen as a significant pushback towards the prohibitionist strategy to drug management.
Colombia requested the UN physique tasked with coverage on policing unlawful medicine to create a “excessive degree panel of impartial consultants to critically analyze the worldwide drug regime,” which is able to report again in 2029. It might result in decriminalization of merchandise akin to coca leaves presently categorised as harmful substances.
In the meantime in Bogotá, President Gustavo Petro warned his cupboard throughout a televised debate that america, beneath President Donald Trump, would probably “decertify” Colombia in its battle to fight cocaine, or use the menace to convey again aerial fumigation of herbicides to kill coca vegetation, banned in Colombia since 2015.
“They’re going to inform us to fumigate in any other case they gained’t certify us. Spraying means killing farmers. And extra conflict and extra conflict in Colombia, extra drug trafficking, and extra migration to america. They’re creating a nasty coverage. It’s a coverage of domination, not of comrades,” stated Petro.
The 2 occasions spotlight the dilemmas confronted by Colombia in its decades-long battle towards the cocaine commerce, and its balancing act as an advocate to cut back punitive drug management whereas protecting the Trump administration on aspect.
Certification is a key concern for Colombia and different international locations caught up in drug wars. Yearly the US government approves drug management measures in quite a lot of international locations and decertification, which hasn’t occurred in Colombia since 1997, can convey sanctions, commerce restrictions and a discount in army and monetary assist.
Notably, the U.S. was one in all solely two international locations (the opposite being Argentina) to vote towards Colombia’s decision on the UN convention final week.
Colombia’s coverage since 2022 has been to supply communities voluntary applications to substitute their coca plantations with different industrial crops, whereas bringing social funding, what Petro described as “oxygenating” the coca areas.
Concurrently Petro promised a robust program of drug captures – going after the dangerous guys – to “asphyxiate” the armed teams by reducing off their unlawful earnings.
Neither plan has succeeded. Monitoring by the UN recorded manufacturing potential of two,600 tons of cocaine produced in Colombia in 2023, a 50% improve on the earlier yr, and coca crop protection of a report excessive of 253,000 hectares. InsightCrime, which displays organized crime within the Americas, called it Colombia’s “cocaine bonanza.”
With the worldwide cocaine market being measured in a whole bunch of billions of U.S. {dollars}, and the excessive demand for the drug, some consultants had been questioning the success of crop substitution.
In accordance with María Alejandra Vélez of the Heart for Research on Safety and Medicine (CESED), speaking to El Mutante not too long ago, an analysis of the coca substitution program discovered that solely 3% of households had obtained the promised advantages till the top of 2022, with little progress since.
“And even when they handle to remodel some territories and transition to different economies, the coca will transfer some place else,” stated Vélez.
This so-called “balloon impact” – the place coca crops squeezed in a single space pop up elsewhere — has notably affected areas of environmental safety, stated Vélez. In accordance with UN monitoring, 48% of Colombia’s coca crops are presently in nationwide parks, forest reserves or indigenous territory.
She additionally challenged the federal government’s notion that eradicating coca would rid armed teams from a zone. CESED’s personal fieldwork had proven that teams initially within the cocaine commerce had diversified into different prison enterprises such because the management of unlawful gold mining, land appropriation and extortion. “This undermines the concept that coca essentially creates the presence of armed teams,” she stated.
One other evaluation confirmed that drug interdiction in Colombia was failing to dent the cocaine commerce. “Cocaine seizures aren’t placing any stress on the unlawful market,” concluded a report by Bogotá-based assume tank Concepts Para La Paz late final yr.
This was as a result of police, military and customs strikes towards the provision chain – the destruction of laboratories and confiscation of the drug itself or precursor chemical substances – was not protecting tempo with manufacturing.
“In 2023, 2,664 tons of cocaine had been produced and 746 tons had been seized; that’s, 28% of the cocaine produced was seized. A discount of just about ten share factors in comparison with the proportion in 2022.”
Confronted with these realities, Colombia caught to its narrative in Vienna that present drug management coverage was not working. “Extra of the identical will get us nowhere,” Colombia’s ambassador to Austria Laura Gil , told the CND. She reminded the convention of Colombia’s dedication to the UN physique, but in addition its want for change.
“My nation has sacrificed extra lives than some other within the conflict on medicine imposed on us,” she instructed the two,000 delegates from 100 collaborating international locations. Colombia produced 70% of the world’s cocaine, which was 5% of the worldwide unlawful drug market, she stated. “We’re not happy with this. We really feel this weight on our shoulders.”
This weight was evident in Cauca this month because the state intensified its army operation within the Cañon del Micay, a coca-growing stronghold of armed teams.
On March 6, fighters from the FARC dissident armed group, the Frente Carlos Patiño, allegedly organized coca farmers to assault police and military models patrolling near El Plateado, a city within the canyon, leading to armored vehicles burned and 29 uniformed officers detained by the rioters.
They had been launched two days later, however the rebels then attacked an army convoy with a roadside bomb killing 5 troopers and injuring 16 extra.
The disaster in Cauca, operating since final October, appears to have pushed Petro’s authorities in the direction of a extra army response than the softer options his diplomats had been proposing in Vienna.
In early March, the mandate tweeted: “The Colombian military won’t ever go away El Plateado or Micay. That is an irreversible determination as a result of Micay doesn’t belong to the Mexican cartels, however to Colombia. The army and social offensive have to be doubled.”
He added: “We anticipate the freed campesinos to hitch the large cost program for the eradication of coca vegetation.”
This tweet typifies the blended message permeating the coca discourse in Colombia as we speak. Two years into Petro’s administration, his substitution plan “has no clear technique to realize these objectives throughout its parts, nor an organized planning and implementation course of,” reported Concepts Para La Paz.
The query now for Colombia is how will it sort out its rising coca disaster and declining safety? Some imagine the Petro administration will go for a more durable strategy to its coca enclaves even whereas selling a gentler strategy on the world stage. Extra army motion may also enhance his probability to keep away from US de-certification.
The certification determination is due in September, although beneath Trump, punitive actions can come at any time, as occurred with the tariff threats towards Mexico.
Preliminary figures for cocaine seizures in 2024 look promising in accordance with data released this month by the U.S. State Division of their 2025 Worldwide Narcotics Management Technique Report: Colombian forces and worldwide companions seized a report 960 tons of cocaine and cocaine base, a substantial improve from 2023.
The acid check shall be coca crop protection, with UN monitoring solely reporting 2024 figures in mid 2025. Solely then will or not it’s clear if the record-setting interdictions truly outpace the rise in coca plantations.
For now, Colombia is pushing to get outcomes on each fronts; disrupting the cocaine provide chain and lowering coca protection. The race is on.
Featured picture: A cocaine laboratory allegedly belonging to the Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN) which Colombian miliatary seized in February 2025. Picture credit score: Colombian Ministry of Protection through X: https://x.com/mindefensa/standing/1892024800140231162/picture/3
